On Thursday, a politically charged deal between the French government and ArcelorMittal to preserve jobs at an ailing steelworks looked at risk of unraveling after the global steel giant ditched a bid to run an EU-funded project there.

ArcelorMittal withdrew an application for using the Florange site in northern France for an EU “green steel” pilot project that Paris had hoped could keep two idled blast furnaces going.

“I’ve seen the distress and anger and I know what’s caused it. But my responsibility is to make sure Florange has a future,” President Francois Hollande said and added that all promises made to save the Florange site would be kept.

ArcelorMittal said it could not currently pursue the ULCOS project for technical reasons; the company is already under fire for months in France over its plan to permanently shut the Florange furnaces on the grounds they are not economically viable.